The Fan Returns
by unholyghost
Summary: The fan of Konoha returns...sort of. After his fight with Deidara, Sasuke is dying, and now Naruto and Sakura must contend with their own village of Konoha to keep him alive. Sakura x Naruto, rated teen for language and violence.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own Naruto and all of the characters, That is why I'm writing fan fictions instead of my comic book series.**

**Hey peoples, this is my first fic here, and I really hope you like it. Actually it isn't really a whole fic at all. I wanted to go right into my other story, but I would have left a lot of questions out there, and I didn't want to go into a gigantic flashback (trust me it would have been a flashback that spanned 4 chapters). So this is like a little prequel to my full fledge story. I'm going to consider this a sort of practice run, so don't go easy on me when it comes to reviews, but don't flame either. All are valued. Well I know you are probably bored out of your mind so without further adieu: The Fan Returns.**

**P.S. This story takes place right at the end of manga chapter 360. If you don't know where that is in time, it is right in the middle of Sasuke and Deidara's fight.**

**The Fan Returns**

**Chapter One**

The Deidara in front of Sasuke turned to clay the minute Sasuke's chidori plunged through his chest. "A clay bunshin!" just as he began to realize his predicament, a hand shot from the bird he was standing on to grasp his ankle.

"You see, I have trained my left eye to detect and dispel genjutsu. I've fallen for your clan's tricks once, but it will never happen again." His other hand shot from the bird "Now eat my C4!" At that instant a long centipede slithered from the hand in his mouth, wrapping itself around Sasuke's body. "This trick wasn't good enough to best Itachi, but then again, you are the weakest of the remaining Uchiha." he smirked as he saw Sasuke glower in his direction. Deidara pulled the rest of his body from his clay mount and smiled as he thought to himself, _heh. One of the remaining Uchihas is about to die at my hands. It's a shame; he could have been a valuable addition to Akutski. _"Oh well, now you die." At this he shoved the entangled Sasuke off the bird and watched him fall a few feet before forming his hand into his favorite seal. "Katsu!" A fireball encapsulated Sasuke, giving way to a misty purple haze. Deidara was just able to catch a glimpse of him as he fell fifty feet to smash against the ground. Thud.

Deidara willed his mount to the ground. He felt extreme joy in eliminating an Uchiha. _It was a beautiful piece of Art. _At that moment, Tobi joined him at the mangled body. "That a nice explosion Deidara-senpai." He looked down at the body, "I feel kind of bad though."

"Why, Tobi." He glanced over at his disciple "You are no longer one of them. You are Akutski through and through."

Suddenly, Sasuke turned his head and opened his eye slightly. _I'm not dead, but I feel so weak._ _It feels like my life is slowly draining away. _"It's alive, senpai!" Tobi screamed. He lept back several feet.

"I know. The explosion wasn't enough to kill him, but I left a little surprise in that centipede. He'll be dead in a few days." he looked down at the Uchiha, he smiled at him remorselessly. "How fitting for someone who suffered all there life to die in such an agonizing way." he breathed in sharply. "This is almost as perfect as my art." And without another thought the two walked off leaving Sasuke to fester.

Just as he saw the two leave, excruciating pain lanced from his legs and arms into his chest. He gasped as another wave of agony rolled over his body. _Ungh…one of my arms is broken. _"Aghh!" He could not even muster the strength to roll over. _My legs are broken…egh…there is no freaking way I'm going to survive thi_s. Suddenly a pain hit him square in the chest. Suspecting it was a broken rib, he poked and prodded his chest with his one good arm, but to his surprise he felt that everything was intact. _What the hell was tha… _"Ahh!" The pain coursed through his chest again, only stronger this time.

He tried to relax. He pushed the pain to the back of his mind. He rolled himself onto his back (wincing slightly), and looked up into the midday sky. The Orange hue of the pre-sunset sky danced playfully among the white clouds over head. He gazed at nothing in particular for sometime before one cloud in particular caught his attention. It was just a cloud with several spires jutting from the center, but to Sasuke it released a torrent of memories. _I wonder what Naruto is doing right now. Probably training or out looking for me somewhere. I hope he finds me; I would really like to see one of my old friends before I die. _

He leaned his head back against the moist earth; the scent of blood was already invading his nostrils. His vision was already blurry along the edges. And for the first time in a long while Sasuke thought about his life. _Why the hell am I here? I trained for years to gain the skills to beat Itachi, but it was all in vein. I had just as much information then as I do now, bupkas. I should never have left Konoha. I should never have made people who genuinely cared about me miserable. _For one of the first times in his life, Sasuke was sorry, truly sorry.

The pain was beginning to creep back into his thoughts. His limbs were still broken, and his chest was continuing to throb. _What the hell is that? With each convulsion I grow weaker. _The pangs grew more intense by the minute, and he could feel himself falling into unconsciousness. Sasuke turned his head to look at the thicket he was laying next to, and he managed to catch a hint of orange lurking in the trees. _I…I must be hallucinating. _His vision began to fade; he could feel the darkness take him. At that moment Sasuke glanced back to the thicket to see Naruto standing there. Just as he shut his eyes he mumbled under his breath "I knew you would find me…"

* * *

"Naruto, come in." Kakashi's voice played over the team's radios. He was glad he had him on his side, but now was not a time to be chatting it up over the radio. This would probably be his best chance to capture Sasuke. "Naruto, I repeat: do you copy?"

He growled under his breath, "Roger, I hear you loud and clear." He waited a second before he continued, "What do you want Kakashi?" He wasn't going to be stopped by protocol this time. He was far to close to his goal for that now.

"Your going toward the explosion aren't you."

"That's right, and I'm not stopping."

The radio went silent for a good while. He could not stand waiting to hear what Kakashi was going to say about this. _Why does Kakashi order me to stand down every single time I'm close to finding Sasuke? _"Naruto." _And here it is. _"You have permission to engage." _What?_ "I'll start rounding up the rest of the teams; radio in once you reach the site." _Well, that's a…refreshing change of pace._

"Who was that, Naruto?"

He looked over to Hinata, "It was Kakashi, he gave us the green light." She looked back to the front again. _This is, I think, the first time we've ever been on a mission together. Despite her being skittish and shy and not ninja like sometimes, she is a really focused person. _He was actually glad she was on his team. He thought it was great that the two of them were on the same team finally. He still loved Sakura, but he found it was refreshing spending time with Hinata. To his embarrassment, Naruto found himself caught staring at her. Hinata had watched him look at her that way through her byakugan, but he had not noticed until she turned to face him. She looked forward, blushing slightly; her byakugan was still activated. Abashed, Naruto hastily brought their focus back to the mission "What's the status of the site?"

She gazed straight ahead with her eyes roving over her field of vision. After a few seconds, she looked back to see Naruto staring at her, again. "There seems to be a body lying twenty meters from the blast site. Whoever it is is barely alive."

"Anything else?"

"I'm not sure but there seems to be another person holding position a kilometer from the site. I'm not sure if it is an enemy or not."

"Okay. Hinata, make sure that person doesn't make a move to intercept us."

"Hai"

"Yamato." Naruto looked over to the official leader of the team.

"What?"

"Create a bunshin to protect our left flank. I'll send one of mine to guard our right."

"Hai." Yamato was surprised. Even the veteran ANBU operative had never been so cautious. This was probably the most serious he had ever seen Naruto. _He is dead set on getting this one right. He isn't allowing any of us to make a blockheaded move, and he is also keeping himself and Hinata on task. Naruto will definitely make a great leader some day. _He formed the seals required to make one of his mokuton no bunshins, and after it appeared from his back he sent it to protect their left side. Naruto did the same with one of his kage bunshins, and sent it too their right. _That is a great strategy too. He's not only developing into a persuasive leader, but also an effective one. I guess those shogi lessons paid off._

**FLASHBACK**

"Why do I have to do this?" Shikamaru was ready to help Naruto in any mission, but He did not want to be training him in a game that was his life. He did not mind the playing part, but the babysitting part of teaching him the rules and basics just seemed troublesome to him.

"Because a good leader also has to deal with the fact that one of his subordinates is incompetant. Think of this as training for yourself too." Kakashi had decided it was in Naruto's best interest if he picked up the hobby of playing shogi. He had decided that Naruto had charged in wildly into battles far to much to become any sort of shinobi other than a dead one. "The most important quality of a shinobi is the ability to strategize for certain situations. Shikamaru is probably the best shinobi of all time for doing that, and Naruto, well, your level is around zero. I'm hoping that he'll be able to help you with something. I'll be back in a few to check in on your progress." Without another word Kakashi disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto was hating every minute of this. He had thought this was going to be boring, but it had been two hours and they still hadn't started playing. _Man this bites, why am I hear learning about retarded pieces of wood instead of learning new jutsu… _

"Did you get all of that Naruto?" Shikamaru's question jolted Naruto from his inner complaining. "I think we should play a game now to see if you can grasp the concept." _Finally, I get to show him and everyone else how bad I am at this piece of shit. _"Okay Naruto set up the board."

"Oh…Okay" _crap. _he began to set up his pieces as Shikamaru set up his. He would set a piece on his board wherever Shikamaru would set his. After several agonizing minutes of fumbling through that process the board was ready.

"You didn't pay attention, did you?" Shikamaru sighed and frowned at his unimpressed opponent. Well I guess you're going to have to learn as we go then. Shikamaru moved a piece out first. Naruto, instead of countering with a defense he had been told about before the game, moved his same piece to the exact same place as Shikamaru. Shikamaru moved again, and Naruto copied. This went on for several moves until Naruto finally made a move of his own. _I see what he did. He knew he didn't know what to do, so he copied my moves until he figured out what each piece does. I never thought Naruto's brain would be capable of functioning like that. Hell I didn't even think Naruto's brain was capable of basic math. _

After a thirty minutes of play, and a few rounds of moves, Shikamaru had cornered Naruto. With no moves left Naruto was forced to surrender. At that same moment, Kakashi appeared next to the duo. "Well I see the training was a success. What did you think of the game Naruto?"

"Actually, it was pretty fun. I felt like I was really thinking about tactics for the first time." Naruto was right. With almost no training, he had set traps and even managed to take a few of Shikamaru's pieces without him planning it. He was also right that it had been the first time he had thought about a battle.

"Huh, thinking just might be within your realm of capabilities after all." Kakashi always loved to provoke him.

**END FLASHBACK**

They were within one hundred meters now, and Naruto could clearly see the evidence that an epic battle had taken place. The once great trees had been stripped of some of their branches. Scorch marks covered the ground. Hinata slowed the group down, and hid them behind a dense copse of trees. "There is a body over there, and it is still alive. I don't know, however, how alive or who it is." She looked back through the trees and said, "It could be an ambush."

"I know…but there is nothing we can do about it now." He pulled a kunai from his pack and waited a few seconds. _This is it. If this isn't Sasuke, something horrible could happen. I don't want any of my other friends to die, but I can't just forget about Sasuke either. _He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. "Okay guys, after I charge out Yamato will cover me, and Hinata will follow, making sure no one gets a jump on us." The two of them nodded in agreement. He turned back to face the body,_ on the count of three one…two…three!_

He barreled through the cluster of trees so quickly and stopped so abruptly that Yamato barley stopped in time to avoid running him over. He saw Sasuke mumble something in Naruto's direction, but he could not hear him. He brought the mic to his mouth and broadcast to both kakashi and the rest of the team. "Hey guys, We've got him."

**Well there you have it, this is my first entry here, and I sure hope you like it. This is about how long my chapters will be from this point on (at least for this story anyway), but if any of you want longer chapters just say the word and it shall be done (or atleast it will be say the word and I will try). Remember this is just my prologue so the more you review, the better my actual work will be. **

**-ghost-**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi everybody, by now you've probably been frustrated and annoyed with the fact that I haven't updated in a while. Well I'm sorry about that, so I forced my self to finish this chapter. It really caused me a bunch of problems cause I had half done before camp, then I came home and had to refresh myself with it and then I got some writers block. All in all I am now officially pissed at this chapter and the fact that I procrastinate like crazy. I like this chapter in terms of story line though cause you get to see some of the main conflict now. Well enjoy.**

**CHAPTER 2**

"You heard Naruto, right Sakura?" Kakashi's voice sounded into her ear bud. Sakura smiled; she had heard Naruto. She could not stop thinking about what he had said. Finally their squad would be whole again. _Naruto did it. _She smiled even more. _He was right, he promised me he would bring him back, and…he…he did it. _She began thinking of how amazing it would be to train together again, work together on missions, and live the rest of their ninja lives a team.

"Did you hear me?" Kakashi's question jolted her from her reverie. She had been daydreaming, and she had not heard what he had been talking about for the last five minutes.

"Uh…there was some….uh…radio interference."

"No there wasn't." She winced as he sighed into his mic. "Stop daydreaming and pay attention! I'm afraid that Sasuke is in critical condition." This sobered her. "I need you to set up a little area where we can regroup and treat Sasuke's wounds before we return to Konoha." He paused letting it sink in, "we're going to need a place with a clean source of water. We will also need a large supply of nearby herbs and aloes…"

She glanced around at the small buildings along her path as Kakashi rambled on. She noticed a few shops and restaurants, but once she saw a certain building, she giggled to herself, "well I'm not quite sure, but I think I've found a suitable place. That is if you consider a hotel with a botanical garden next door a nice place to stop." She waited while Kakashi pondered over what she said. "I'm in a small town about three kilometers from the blast site."

"Oh, well in that case…sure. I'll meet you there after I round up the rest of the teams. Kakashi Out" The radio clicked off leaving Sakura standing in front of a quaint little inn; the two dogs in her team had went off in separate directions to contact the other squads. She figured that they had left on Kakashi's orders.

The pink haired kunoichi started walking toward the aged structure. She gazed along its crumbling walls, noting the vines growing along its length. _Hedera azorica, the person who runs this place must take a lot of care to keep those growing; they only live in the most fertile of places. _The tan, sun-baked stone was flaking off revealing its darker under-layers. She paused long enough to brush her hand along the aged stone.

She turned the worn, brass handle, and opened the door to expose a comfortable setting. The front desk sat at the back of a small rectangular room. The fireplace cast dancing shadows along the wood paneling. She walked over and slumped into the leather couch across from the fireplace. Gazing into the orange glow, Sakura watched the flames leap and dance along the logs. The golden tongues reminded her of a certain blonde friend. _It's been so long since we've done something together. _She frowned as she realized that the two had spent virtually all of the past two and a half years training. _We deserve a rest, and after this I think we should spend some time just hanging out. _She stared at the fire for a while longer before she noticed herself dazing off. _I can't believe Sasuke is coming back, and all I can think of is Naruto…_

* * *

_War. It surrounded her, consumed her, and ate away at her. The dark clouds of death and destruction loomed over the horizon. She stared at them waiting for something, but she didn't know what it was. They sat motionless poised as if to strike at the only peace she had left. Flashes resounded in the distance and a chilling wind blew through her. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she dropped her head to her hands. But at that moment she felt something behind her. She felt this being approach from behind her; he, somehow she could tell, cast off such an aura of health and happiness. She felt him place a hand on her shoulder. She turned to look at him, and was surprised to see Naruto there, but it wasn't the Naruto she knew. This one was much older; his hair was shoulder length, he had traded his orange sport coat for a black trench coat, and he was built. But he still felt like the same Naruto. He smiled down at her, and his radiance penetrated her and accumulated in her, filling her up. Now he was shaking her, imploring her to answer him, "What Naruto?" She spoke allowed. He answered, "Are you alright." _

* * *

Sakura opened her eyes to gaze up at him. He was standing over top of her, and the look he was giving her made her a bit concerned. He was staring at her with those big blue eyes, and he was clutching her shoulder tightly. As she looked over at his hand she noticed the sheen of perspiration that covered her skin. _Why am I sweating? _She looked back at Naruto and remembered the dream she had had. She remembered those dark clouds and the terrible feelings they had forced through her body. Then she remembered the other force that was there, a warm and happy one. And now she noticed that same feeling was emanating from the person standing right next to her. 

"Are you all right?" She glanced back up to see the concern in Naruto's eyes. She felt him relax his hand on her shoulder as he saw her wake from her fitful dream. "What happened?"

"Nothing, I just had a bad dream." She brought a hand to her head to rub the sleep from her eyes. She looked around, but she could not see anyone other than Naruto. She propped herself up on her elbows, "Where's everybody else?"

She had sat up from the couch by now, so Naruto sat down beside her. "They're upstairs. That's were we are keeping Sasuke. There probably just talking, we really didn't know what we were supposed to do to heal him." He hated that he had worked so hard to bring him back, but now all he could do was sit back and watch. "He always was just out of our reach…and now that we have him, he's dying and I can't do anything. I just feel…like I'm weak."

"Don't say that Naruto. You are the strongest person I know."

He was shocked by what she had just said, and personally so was Sakura. _Why did I say that? _But she was glad about the effect it had on him. _At least I got him smiling again._ "Thanks Sakura."

She smiled to herself, "Don't worry, I feel the same sometimes too. You know…after this we should go out to Ichiraku. We deserve it." Naruto just stared at her and grinned. "What?" She smiled back at him.

"You mean like a date?" Naruto felt his feet leave the floor, but only realized what happened when he heard: Shannaro! Sakura used her massive strength to throw him across the room with a thump to the back of his head. He landed in a heap at the base of the wall. "Oww, what the hell was that!"

"How do you always manage to ruin the moments we have?!"

The glare she gave him chilled his blood, but he could not help himself, "we have moments?"

"There you go again! That's how you manage to…"

"Hey you two, get up here quick, Sasuke's condition is deteriorating." Kakashi called down the steps to interrupt the ninja's antics.

Naruto was already moving by the time Kakashi said that, and he dragged Sakura behind him by her wrist. The pair ran up the stairs and down the hall until they came upon room 220. He stopped and opened the door allowing her to enter before him. The room was nothing special. Two beds were shoved against the back wall, a bathroom was to her left, and chaos was everywhere else. Her friends and teammates were running helter skelter looking for various items to help Sasuke.

She ran to his bedside, and what she saw was not pretty. He had contusions covering his head and chest. His back was torn and bleeding out. She could tell just by looking that he had at least two broken limbs. _What the hell happened to him? He must have been the target of that explosion. _She grabbed the one arm she thought wasn't broken, and felt for his pulse. Surprisingly it was near 140 beats per minute. _There is no way that someone who is in a coma shouldn't have that high of a pulse. There had to have been something else In that explosion to make his heart act like that. _She felt his forehead, she was shocked to feel it so warm. Next she checked his eyes, opening the eyelids in order to see if they were functioning or not. He was non-responsive, and she figured that the coma had been either caused by the shockwave, or some other ill effect of the bomb, or a combination of the two. What ever the cause, he was in a coma, and he was a wreck on the outside. She formed chakra around her hands, and after a few seconds of preparations, she placed her hands on his chest allowing her chakra messengers to assess the damages to Sasuke's body. _Both legs, an arm, and three ribs are broken. Bruising over 40 of his body. A lacerated kidney, and a collapsed lung. It also looks like he suffered a level 2 concussion. He is one gigantic mess._

"Naruto, go get some aloe plants from the garden next door." She continued to examine Sasuke's body. While she searched for any other injuries she may have missed, she began to formulate ideas as to what was going on with his body. _It has to be some kind of poison or neural agent. Nothing else would have caused his heart to act so erratically. _She began to form the hand seals that would heal some of the minor cuts and bruises. The room glowed green from the outpouring of chakra from her hands, but his wounds were not healing as fast as they should have been. She looked down at her hands, but they seemed fine. _What's going on? _She took a scalpel from her medical kit, and sliced her palm, wincing a bit. She brought her other hand up to her cut and was at first relieved to see that the cut healed almost instantly. But then she realized that there must then be something terribly wrong with his body. _It has to be some kind of poison. Where's Naruto with those herbs? _"Hey Kakashi, has Naruto come back yet?" She waited for an answer, but when she didn't get one she turned back to the door. The only problem was that she found a knife blade pressed against her throat mid-turn. There was a masked soldier standing above her.

"You will cease the assistance to the S-class criminal Sasuke Uchiha. Any attempts to interfere with me or my squad in returning the said criminal to Konoha is a punishable offence under the orders of the Fifth Hokage, lady Tsunade. The punishment for this offense is, regrettably…death."

Sakura sat there stunned and speechless, but after a few nerve-racking seconds she found her voice. "Yamato-taichou?"

**A/N: well there you go. I hope you liked this chapter cause (sorry about this) I am leaving for another camp on Sunday and I won't be back till next Friday. I have no idea when I will update next, but I should be able to let you know some day after Friday, so check my profile around then.****Remember to review (BIG THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO REVIEWED ALREADY). **

**-ghost-**


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